Pentagon proposes levels of combat pay

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon review recommends ridding the combat-pay system of inequities that have allowed officers thousands of miles from battle to get better benefits proportionally than troops on the front lines in Afghanistan.

The recommendations in a review released Thursday are likely to anger service members. But the director of the review, Thomas Bush, said they're aimed at paying more to troops who are in the gravest danger and giving the best tax benefits to those who are paid the least.

The report doesn't recommend any specific rates of combat pay or say that certain troops should get less. But, Bush said, "we suggest there be some meaningful distinction" between troops who are getting shot at and those who are simply deployed to one of many countries designated as combat zones. The recommendations are very preliminary, and Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said Friday that they will merely provide alternatives to the Defense Department to consider. Such changes often must be approved by Congress.

Under the military's current system, there are two types of combat pay. One, called "hostile fire pay," gives troops $225 a month if they are in an area where they could be exposed to enemy fire. The second, called "imminent danger pay," gives up to $225 per month to those who are in a combat zone, and it is prorated at $7.50 per day, based on how long they are there.

Bush said the report recommends that hostile-fire pay be more than the danger pay and that there be levels of imminent-danger pay based on where service members are. Currently they can get the danger pay for being in more than two dozen places, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines and Jordan -- as well as in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia.

"We want to target compensation to people who are at the greatest risk," Bush said.